Page 127 of Bound in Ashes

I love you.

But I hadn’t—and wouldn’t.

Jack made his choice.

Nothing I said would change his mind.

I wouldn’t beg, either.

Not ever.

No matter how much I wanted to.

My stomach shifted, punching into my diaphragm like it wanted to crawl its way out.

What would my words matter anyway?

Jack’s cum was still drying on my thighs.

That meant nothing to him. My words wouldn’t, either.

“Do you really have to go, Jack?”

Miles met him on the front porch, his rifle in his hands, looking cartoonishly big—a contrast to Jack’s cartoonishly small backpack.

I looked at Miles, but had to look away. His big brown eyes, the confusion in them. The sadness. The fear. They were all there, making Miles look much younger than his fifteen years.

But that wasn’t the thing that made me look away.

It was the question in those eyes—the why.

I wrapped my arms around my body for want of anything else to do with them. Maybe the physical movement would keep my tongue in place.

“Gotta do what I gotta do, kid,” Jack said.

“But what about that sheriff?” Miles said.

Jack clapped Miles on the shoulder, but then looked at me. Kept his gaze steady until I met his eyes.

“If it comes to that, you’ll kill him.”

He held my gaze a moment longer, then slapped Miles on the shoulder again.

“Take care of your sister,” he said.

The boy nodded, his unruly brown curls flapping.

“I remember everything you taught me,” the boy said.

“I know, kid,” Jack said.

It was as much emotion as I had seen from him, even when he was inside me. And my heart lurched, breaking all over again—not for me, but Miles. He’d lost so much. But Jack couldn’t see that, and I couldn’t convince him.

Uncle Levi was sitting next to Miles, keeping watch. Lourdes told him he needed his rest, but he just poo-pooed her.

“Wait a second,” Uncle Levi said.

He stood and walked toward Jack, his steps almost birdlike in their tentativeness.